In Patience Possess Your Soul

My computer at the archives has now been down for three full weeks. A week ago, we lost another computer. And as of last Friday, our operation in Montreal has completely shut down. There are no documents being captured. It's a continuing test in patience. A lot of my scripture study this past week has been about topics like patience and long-suffering.

Wednesday morning I happened to glance outside at my balcony and saw these red buds on my nearly-dead geranium. I was SHOCKED!! I stopped watering it when it started getting cold about a month ago. We've even had a mild freeze since then, although it has been a much warmer November than usual in Montreal. 

I took this as a symbol of thriving in adversity. I've since named the plant Penelope and she gets to come inside at night now. If she can be this tough for the past month then I can too! Both of us have had a rough month.

I'm so impressed with this missionary! He translated the majority of stake conference into Chinese for our branch members. It's SOOOO hard to do simultaneous translation! You're listening and speaking at the same time.

We had a visiting general authority for stake conference last weekend. His name is Robert M. Daines. I loved the Saturday evening session. He projected a lot of questions onto a screen and had us think about them. Essentially, he let the Spirit teach us instead of him teaching us. Brilliant!

We also had a mission tour this past week from our area president, Elder Allen D. Haynie. The seniors got to spend an hour with him and his wife. They are so personable! 

We learned so many valuable tools and skills from Elder Haynie! A few points from his presentation:
* Scattered Israel is drawn to Israel (like a magnet)
* Invite people to come to church as soon as you find them. It's a way to tell how serious they are about learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ...a way to sift, those who don't come to church aren't ready
* Find a need in their lives in the first contact and promise them that that need will be met if they come to church
* Use a dozen different ways to find people to teach, not just street contacting and knocking
* Our mission is really good at digital contacting, 20% of our baptisms come from it

This would be my least favorite part of mission tours...standing for 45 minutes to wait for "the picture".

But I love being with the missionaries. 

My African cowboy missionary. . .

Another GREAT part of my week was that I got to be in lessons with two different friends that the young missionaries are teaching. One is the secretary of our apartment building. All of the missionaries who live in our building have become friends with her, but particularly one couple in the beginning. The secretary started lessons with the missionaries after that couple moved to another city. I asked her how the lessons were going then kind of invited myself to attend the lessons as well. 

The first lesson I was in with her this past week was incredible! She felt the Spirit so strongly! She grabbed her chest and said, "It feels like fire in here." I whipped out D&C 9 and told her that's EXACTLY how God says it will feel when He is communicating with us!

Another set of sisters invited me to teach with them. A man responded to an ad from the church on social media. He's been looking at lots of churches and religions for years. He's been having Bible study with the Jehovah's Witnesses for two years and is about to be baptized into that church. But curiously, he decided to look into this church. He's responding very well to the Book of Mormon.

What a huge blessing for me to watch changes in these two friends! I was thinking about how lucky our young missionaries are because they get to see this ALL THE TIME! But as a records preservation missionary, it's extremely rare for me.

Running total of captures: 441,312

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

Sadly Disappointed

Well, this is actually the first week of my mission in Montreal where I can honestly say I did NOT capture one, single historical document. My computer software has been broken for two weeks. The week after it happened, I moved to another computer so I could keep working. At the end of that week everything shut down at that computer as well. And so last week I was just on vacation. While the vacation has been fun, it's not what I came to Canada to do. I came here to work for my Master to help prepare the world for His Second Coming. But I have no control over an inoperable computer. I'm disappointed. I've notified my supervisor numerous times and nothing is being done about it.

I'm having a hard time understanding why it takes two weeks to repair a glitch in software. I can do nothing but wait. Patience is not my strong suit but I've had plenty of opportunity to practice it this past week. I've been studying about patience and long-suffering during my gospel study this week. One of the definitions that I found for long-suffering which seems very applicable here is "patience in spite of troubles, especially those caused by other people." I have no control over this situation, other people do.

This has been a symbol I look at every day to remind me of the importance of my work in linking families to their ancestors.

Now this is what it feels like to me...completely broken down.

God continues to tutor and refine me on this mission. . .

In happier news, here are some of the things I did to fill my time this week.

I decked my halls and I'm READY for Christmas! The MOST WONDERFUL time of the year!

On Transfer Eve I went to the Papineau chapel to see the "transfer circus." I knew that many missionaries meet up at this chapel to hook up with their new companions or to get a ride to the airport or train station at 5 pm. I've never seen it before and wanted to experience it once on my misson. I was the only female there. Hehe. It was so heartwarming to see how much these elders care about each other. I loved hearing the expressions of love they shared with each other and watching the enthusiastic hugs and back slapping.

I helped in the office on transfer day and said goodbye to our lovely departing missionaries.

Here's one I'm REALLY going to miss! Since we're both Sister Jones, we've joked her whole mission that she is my niece. We've sucked in a lot of the young missionaries with our prank! Haha! I love my Sister Jones dearly.

I wrote this note in her passport on the first day she arrived in the mission. Several months later she shared with me that it helped to lift her spirits during hard times.

I visited la grande bibliothèque, the big library, which is just down the street from my apartment building.

I inventoried the keyboards so that they're ready to hand off to another ward or branch who wants to run the keyboarding classes in their unit.

I also explored a charming town which is an hour and 45 minutes west of Montreal called Montebello. It's got a log mansion which is now a hotel.

The lobby reminded me a bit of Old Faithful Inn.

Check out this awesome sundial!

They're gearing up for a Christmas market in a few weeks. Looks fun!

Let's see what surprises this coming week brings! "Stay flexible and be calm" is my new mantra!

Running total of captures: 441,312

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

Stacks in the Basement

I had the rare treat of going to the storage rooms of the National Archives of Quebec this week. These are where the projects that we capture are stored but we never see these rooms. One of the staff retrieves the boxes and brings them to us.

See the big sheet of plastic on the shelves to the left? Since our building is so old (built in 1871) there are many places that leak when it rains or snows. There are many rows of shelves that have these plastic sheets to protect the documents from water damage.

Here are some old films. They are kept in COOOOOLD storage!

And old photos

My favorite book that we looked at in storage was a record of prisoners. I could have spent some serious time with that book if permitted! It was fascinating.

I've been working with some interesting books this week.

We heard an interesting story from this missionary who will go home next week. He never intended to serve a mission. He had a testimony of the Book of Mormon, but just wasn't interested in serving. One of his good friends suggested they put in their mission papers together. They decided to leave their homes in Hong Kong and go to BYU-I for a semester and then put in their misison papers.

Then came an interesting turn of events. His friend decided to not go on a mission but he continued to pursue the charted course. His friend returned home to Hong Kong and this young man was called to serve in Canada and came on his mission.

I've seen a DRASTIC change in him since I first met him a year and a half ago. I was telling him this week that he seemed to be 16 years old when I met him but he is NOT the same man today. The big change started when he was called to be a district leader unexpectedly. He REALLY stepped up his game! Before that, he'd just follow his companions around like a little puppy. But all of a sudden, there was no one to follow around. Then a few months later he was called to be a zone leader. 

I have truly watched him grow from a boy into manhood...and it looks good on him!

The sister on the left is going home next week. She asked me if she should go to Ghana to do a humanitarian project after she goes home. I asked her why she wants to go to Ghana and she told me that she loves African people after serving here in Montreal and teaching many Africans. I told her, YES! GO! Africans have blessed my life in so many ways!!

Sadly, my capturing work ground to a standstill last Friday. The updated software wouldn't work on my computer last Tuesday so I jumped onto another computer that has a project that needs to be finished and informed my supervisor about the problem with my computer. Then on Friday, the software on the second computer quit working.

The funny thing is that Monday, November 11 is a bank holiday in Quebec--Remembrance Day, similar to Veterans Day in the U. S.--  and the other archive missionaries kept asking me for the past week if the archives building was closed that day, meaning we would have a holiday. I kept telling them no. As it turns out, it looks like I  will be having a holiday on Monday since I can't do any work, but the rest of them will be there working away.

Running total of captures: 441,312

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859

Go Towards the Light

Monday was in the 30s so it felt like TimTam slam weather...you bite off the corners of the cookie and use it as a straw to suck hot chocolate through. Don't knock it till you've tried it! I sincerely hope that we have TimTams in the U.S. for post-mission delicacies!

The weather was WAAAY different two nights later when we went out to see the illuminated botanical gardens. It was 65 degrees at night on October 30th. Unheard of in Montreal!!

This is the most magical photo from the evening. I think it almost looks like a painting instead of a photo. This little girl was fascinated by the reflected light coming from the tiny shards of mirrors so she draped half of her body right into the bowl. She was down in this position for a very long time interacting with the light.

I think she's a great example to the rest of us. GO towards the light. Interact with the light. Stay in the light. Jesus IS light. I want to crave Jesus' presence the same way this little girl craved the light she found in this fascinating place.

Here she is from a different angle.

This is a man I see frequently on my walk to the archives in the morning. We struck up a conversation one day and have become friends ever since. He's quite a rough character but I really enjoy talking to him whenever he's out on the steps smoking. He's had a really rough life. He would be a very different person if he had grown up with all of the advantages I've had. I enjoy our friendship.

The fish finally moved inside on November 1st this year. I checked, it's only a week earlier than last year in spite of the warm October we had this year.

Canada culture: Don't remember if I mentioned this already...Ritz crackers don't come in sleeves in this part of the world.

Yes, I did capture some documents this week.

Running total of captures: 438,027

Running total of docs prepped: 12,859